


Leaves of Friendship

by ShadowEtienne



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Friendship, Gen, post circle of magic, pre circle opens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 02:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13754595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowEtienne/pseuds/ShadowEtienne
Summary: Tris hasn't had the best day.  Books and friends always help, even if she's not quite sure she wants to let them.





	Leaves of Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chestnut_filly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chestnut_filly/gifts).



**_1038 K.F., 5th day of Barley Moon_ **

 

The medallion under Tris’ robes seemed heavier in the summer’s heat, and as Barley Moon lingered on hot and sticky, without any breezes to improve her mood, she wanted to fling away its weight of responsibility.  She’d retreated to the roof after grumbling at Sandry and Daja over breakfast because they’d been busy, even though she knew that they were working on needed rebuilding after the past few years for Winding Circle.  She felt left out.  At least it hadn’t been the entire household.  Lark had been away already, Briar had been in the garden, and Rosethorn had still been asleep.

 

From the roof of Discipline, the ordinary sounds of the temple drifted up to her, strands of comforting daily conversations, and she let herself just breathe for a while.  The air was less stuffy on the roof, and she always felt freer up there.  She could feel the others at their work:  Sandry in the nearby loom houses, Daja intensely focused in the forges, and Briar, closest of all, arguing with weeds in the garden.  Rosethorn hadn’t been up yet when Tris had retreated to the roof, but Briar had done most of the day’s work in the garden all summer with Rosethorn still recovering from the lingering effects of the Blue Pox.  She was mostly well, but Tris knew that all of them watched for even the littlest of things, Lark and Briar most of all, to Rosethorn’s irritation.

 

She wondered if part of the frustration, beyond even just her hatred of the summer’s heat, was feeling like she wasn’t useful in the same way the others were.  She’d felt useful the year before in Dedicate Crane’s lab, and when Niko had taken her to scry, though she’d not entirely appreciated the latter.  She was not sure that she was entirely patient enough for her talents sometimes.  It had been a  quiet year.  She figured she should have been grateful for that, and she mostly was, but she was bored.

 

She heard Briar move inside from the garden, pausing at the door to talk with the owner of a familiar voice.  Tris was curious, but she waited.  She could feel Briar smugly taking his time to come up to the roof for a while before she finally heard the ladder to the roof rattle, allowing Briar to deftly climb over the edge, something clutched under one arm.  He came and sat near her quietly, and at last, Tris asked, “What have you got?”

 

Briar grinned at her and held out the parcel.  She took it, clearly a book of some sort, and looked at him questioningly.  He nodded and said, “You open it Coppercurls, it’s to both of us.  Osprey brought it by, though it sounds like she wasn’t the only one who got it put together.”

 

Tris tore the paper wrappings off carefully, though from how Briar chuckled at her, she could tell that she wasn’t hiding eagerness well, not that they could hide it from each other at all, but sometimes, she had to at least try.  It was in fact a book, but she couldn’t figure out what it was at first.  She flipped it open, and Briar leaned over her shoulder to read the inscription before falling back on the blanket that they kept on roof in the summer laughing.  She said, “Did Osprey say why she brought us a copy of the paper on the Blue Pox, the full bound one, or why there’s a note saying,” she paused to laugh, “ _ A record of firings and findings in Dedicate Crane’s laboratory. _ ”

 

Briar twirled a straw from the roof between his fingers, looking up at the sky and replied, “She said that they’d added annotations.  And that we had enough to do with it succeeding that we deserved one of the copies with the notes.  She didn’t want to show it to Rosethorn, but I think that she’d appreciate it making fun of Crane.  In a good natured way, I mean, but well, you’ve seen them together.”

 

Tris flipped through the book a little bit.  The first note she found in Osprey’s tidy hand was simply, “1st firing.”  Each new person who left the team got a more elaborate note.  She looked over at Briar, and he teasingly asked, “I guess I’d better be glad that you taught me how to read if for no other reason than this.”

 

He paused just long enough that she looked a bit disconcerted, and then he added poking her with the straw, “Don’t worry Coppercurls.  I finished the book you lent me.  It’s on your shelf again.”

 

Tris laughed fully then, tension unwinding from her shoulders, and a sudden gust of air swept over the walls and nearly tried to pull the book from her grasp.  She looked towards the sea, and saw, at the edges of her vision, the first clouds of the autumn gathering.  Briar looked at her thoughtfully and said, “You’re feeling better?”

 

Tris nodded and told him, “Let’s go take Little Bear down to the cliffs.  I want to smell the rain even if it doesn’t get to us.”

 

Briar responded by scrambling down the ladder ahead of her, letting her hand the book down to him before she made her way down.  He ducked into Rosethorn’s study, and Tris heard Rosethorn’s cranky reply, “Go be your age for once, the plants aren’t going to run off without you, and you’ve done the weeding.”

 

Tris still felt a touch restless, but she felt more at home in her own skin again, because Discipline was home, and she knew that her foster brother and sisters would be there even when she was grumpy.

 


End file.
